SEP 26 (TAMPA, Fla.) – Mark R. Trouville, Special Agent in Charge (SAC), Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Miami Field Division, and A. Lee Bentley, III, Acting United States Attorney for the Middle District of Florida, announced yesterday that Camilo Torres-Martinez, aka Fritanga (41, Colombia), pleaded guilty to conspiracy to import into the United States five kilograms or more of cocaine; conspiracy to manufacture and distribute five kilograms or more of cocaine, intending that it would be unlawfully imported into the U.S.; and conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute five kilograms or more of cocaine, while onboard a vessel subject to the jurisdiction of the U.S. He faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years' imprisonment and a maximum penalty of life in federal prison for each count. Torres-Martinez was extradited on April 25, 2013, from Colombia to the Middle District of Florida to face these charges.

According to court documents, from 2001 until June 2012, Torres-Martinez and his drug trafficking organization (DTO) transported large cocaine shipments dispatched off the Northern coast of Colombia that were ultimately destined for the United States. The DTO utilized speedboats or fishing vessels to transport the cocaine shipments from Colombia to Honduras, for distribution into the U.S.

The Torres-Martinez DTO was responsible for at least two cocaine shipments that were seized. Specifically on November 8, 2004, the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) interdicted a 40-foot speedboat in the Caribbean Sea, and recovered approximately 2,652 kilograms of cocaine. Also on July 6, 2005, the USCG interdicted a Honduran-flagged fishing vessel, the Ocean Mistery, in the Caribbean Sea, and recovered a total of 2,483 kilograms of cocaine.